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Pesticide Action Network's blog

This summer, the State Water Resources Control Board announced their plans to get a cancer-causing chemical out of California's water. This is very big news. According to state monitoring data, more than one million Californians may have unknowingly been exposed to the carcinogenic "garbage pesticide" 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) in their drinking water.

Monsanto’s latest genetically engineered (GE) seeds are wreaking havoc this season in soybean country. “Xtend,” the corporation’s new GE soybean, is engineered to tolerate application of the drift-prone herbicide dicamba. The seed was approved in 2015, and now soybean farmers who did not adopt it are reporting damage to their crops from dicamba drift.

The fate of Monsanto's flagship herbicide in the European Union (EU) remains unclear. Earlier this week, the standing Committee on Plants, Animals Food and Feed declined to extend authorization for glyphosate sales in the region. The sales license is set to expire at the end of this month.

Earlier this month, France's health and safety agency announced plans to withdraw authorization of herbicides containing both glyphosate and the additive tallowamine. As reported by Reuters, a spokesperson for the agency said:

"It is not possible to guarantee that compositions containing glyphosate and tallowamine do not entail negative effects on human health."

Yesterday, the "Pollinator Protection Act" took a big step forward in the California legislature, moving closer to becoming state law. This is just one of many positive developments for bees in recent weeks.

In a surprise move earlier this week, European officials put a hold on continued use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's flagship herbicide RoundUp. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now well into its seventh year of reviewing the controversial chemical.

The European delay comes in the face of strong opposition to the proposed 15-year re-licensing agreement from Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.